


Stock Market Stability in a Capitalist Dystopia

by Nearfisc



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Comfort, Current Events, Financial Issues, Fluff, Hugs, M/M, really wanted this to be porn but it turns out my deepest fantasy is actually cash, stock market be wildin, this one goes out to everyone experiencing FOMO right now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29153925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nearfisc/pseuds/Nearfisc
Summary: Venom thinks what Eddie wants is money.(aka "tried to write a philosophical meandering of Eddie explaining the cycle of poverty and the crime of the ultra-rich to Venom, ended up writing a fluffy comfort fantasy for Millenials.")
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	Stock Market Stability in a Capitalist Dystopia

**_We should get some stocks._ **

Eddie choked on the absurdity, setting his bottle down on the floor by his feet. It was always a gamble which topic of dinner conversation Venom would pay attention to or be curious about, but this one was low on the list of themes that Eddie would have expected to catch the symbiote’s attention.

“Buddy, what the fuck are you planning to do with a _stock?_ ”

**_Dan likes them. Anne likes them._ **

“I think they’re just interested in what’s happening. It’s not that they like- just _like_ stocks.” Eddie thought for a moment. “Okay, maybe Anne does, she handles the finances.”

**_-and you do._ **

“What do you think a stock is?” Eddie laughed, dismissive, and reached back for his drink. An amused smile formed on his lips as his tone relaxed and he settled back onto the couch. “And why do you think I want one?”

**_You were jealous._ **

The smile faded as Eddie understood. It wasn’t terribly painful, the realization; nothing compared to the other, more pressing issues he’d had to explain to Venom. Barely worth mentioning. Complex, and stupid, and he could tell this was going to be one of the most annoyingly convoluted conversations about human society he’d have to give yet.

“I wasn’t…I wasn’t jealous of his _stocks_ , V.”

 ** _You cannot lie to me,_** Venom stated flatly, now more curious at the indignation. Tendrils tapped along behind Eddie’s right ear, stroking, indicating, as if to remind him that their bond dissolved such tepid boundaries. There was still a distance, still a blur between them, still places in Eddie’s mind that Venom had to guess at.

But Venom was right, and he could sense enough to know there was more to it.

Eddie sighed.

He looked at the off-brand beer in his hand. Felt the beat-to-hell couch barely supporting his weight. Remembered a bedroom that had sunlight by day and complete darkness at night, instead of the ever-present grey light pollution that seeped in whenever he couldn’t get his thin curtains to stay tacked to the window rim.

“I was jealous of…stability, I guess. Dan was talking about stocks and yes, it made me jealous.” Eddie turned the dinner conversation over in his head, trying to shorten everything up into terms that Venom could perhaps understand, and be satisfied with.

“I used to have money, and a retirement account, and stocks, and stuff, and I just- well I don’t-“ He lifted the bottle. “Have that kind of life anymore.”

**_We can get you a stock and a retirement._ **

Eddie sighed.

“You kinda need money for that.”

 ** _Eddie, we HAVE money._** This time it was Venom who was speaking slowly, as though to a child, or a very forgetful, possibly drunk host. **_Lots and lots of it. In the bag. By the river._**

“That’s only for an emergency. A _big_ emergency. And that’s not money I want anyone else to know that I have, understand?”

**_You have used it before._ **

The economics lesson Eddie wanted to explain would have been eloquent coming from a professor. Instead, all he could think of was scenes from _Breaking Bad_ episodes.

“I used _some_ of the _small_ bills, but I can’t be walking around throwing down perfect stacks of hundreds. It’s suspicious as hell, and the last thing we need is me getting questioned for, of all things, _money laundering._ ”

Really, it had been stupid of him to use any of it; and stupid of him to take it; but he was only a man, and it had only been an open duffel bag full of cash in a hastily-abandoned shipping container.

Abandoned, likely, because of the threatening reverberation of Venom’s palm against the metallic exterior a moment prior.

But it wasn’t the traffickers Eddie was worried about most. It was whoever the money had been destined for.

Or worse: the Feds.

**_What good is the money if you cannot use it?_ **

“Vee, that’s insurance. In case I need to leave town in a hurry. In case something big goes down. It won’t help with every scenario, but it might buy me time, or buy someone’s silence, or a hundred other things.”

 ** _WE would help you leave,_** Venom huffed.

“What if you get too injured and go dormant again? What if we get separated and I need to bribe someone to get a chance at getting back to you?”

**_Then I will get us more money, and you will get a retirement, and a stock, and you will have everything, and you will not be jealous of Dan and Anne._ **

“No no no, V-“ Eddie sat up, feeling the satisfaction Venom had at his new plan to please his host. “V, listen to me.

“ _We cannot make a habit of coming home from dinner with extra cash.”_

Jesus Christ, what a way to paint a bigger, redder target on his back. Dead henchmen were one thing- but if someone up a criminal ladder interpreted attacks on their goons as _financial_ in nature, all hell would break loose.

White collar or black market, you don’t mess with the cashflow and stay anonymous for long.

“Stocks are useless to me, and I don’t need a retirement fund. Okay?”

**_I do not understand, Eddie._ **

“What?”

**_Then why were you jealous at all?_ **

“It’s what…they represent, I guess.”

**_Stocks can get you…more money. Dan said._ **

Eddie sighed. “Yeah. Sure.”

**_What is a retirement?_ **

“It’s when…you stop working, and you have money you’ve saved up, and use it to live on.”

**_We could do that now, Eddie. I can provide for you._ **

“Vee, I need a job. I need an explicable cashflow. I need to look as normal, and boring, and broke as possible while still keeping a roof over my head, or it’s going to look very strange to anyone who might start to wonder if I’m surviving by making money illicitly.”

**_I can provide._ **

“Yeah, Vee, for like a _week,_ but you eat junk food like a teenager on steroids, and you need a dense population center with good violent crime pickings to feed your _main_ diet.”

It did occur to Eddie how absolutely fucked it was that, on top of everything, he still had to deal with such bullshit as paying rent.

“If we could live in some remote forest and be ok that would be one thing, but you need humans and I need to avoid prison. There are parameters here.”

It really was bullshit. Eddie was telling the truth- there was no way he had any use for a goddamn retirement fund. With the kind of lifestyle he led, he was under no delusions about being able to ‘settle down’ and whittle away his days in humble luxury. No little house on a little piece of land; no kids checking up on him; no boring, peaceful passing, with exactly enough money leftover to pay for his burial.

What a fucking privilege.

But at least if he was going to- as the kids say- ‘ _live fast, die young’_ -, it would be with someone who cared about him, after all.

 _And who knows?_ , he mused, _I get super-healing, who’s to say I’ll ever get old at all?_

 ** _Eddie,_** Venom nudged, **_We will only die together. Promise._**

Strong, strange comfort washed over Eddie, and he laughed his way out of the bitterness that had been creeping up. Not bitterness at Venom, or bitterness at Anne. Only the bitterness of knowing that a stable, domestic, distant future was no longer in the cards.

**_If money makes things easier, why not get it an ‘acceptable’ way?_ **

“Easier said than done. I’m kind of limited, too, aren’t I?”

**_We can get money from bad guys-_ **

“Vee, _no._ ”

**_-the good way!_ **

Eddie smiled, bemused, and pulled up his phone. The dim screen flashed awake as he scrolled through old notes, lazily searching.

“And that way is-?”

 ** _What Dan said. There are bad people doing bad things with money, so some other people are trying to expose them. And get. Their money._** Venom wavered, trying to remember Dan’s excitable explanation. **_It is like. What we do. Without bodies._**

“Um,” Eddie answered, eyes not leaving the screen, “I think the financial version of what I do would be forensic accounting.”

**_Let us do ‘forensic accounting’, and catch bad guys, and get money, and not get in trouble._ **

“Well, yeah, that is an actual job. I used to dip into that kind of stuff on cases before- before we met.” Eddie tapped the website in. “But it takes someone a _lot_ deeper into it than I am to actually make money from it, and it’s boring as fuck, and if it’s boring for me, then it’s _definitely_ boring for you.”

His phone buzzed with a confirmation code, and the brokerage website welcomed him into the retirement account Anne had made him sign up for.

 ** _Something good, Eddie?_** , Venom asked, sensing the pleasurable spike of mild surprise.

Eddie laughed, thankful for his horrible habit of jotting down passwords in his phone notes.

“Yeah, Vee. Just found some money is all.”

**_Enough for a stock and a retirement?_ **

“Uh- no, Vee. I mean yes, but I’m not buying _stocks._ ”

He ignored Venom’s excitement for the moment, tapping through the un-user-friendly site’s navigation bars to find the method of withdrawing the funds to his singular remaining bank account. The amount was meager compared to the salary Anne used to pump their joint account with twice a month, but she had been right- a small percentage from his paychecks had added up, and he felt weirdly responsible.

“It means if anybody gives a shit to investigate my financial statements, I’ll be able to justify name-brand beer for a bit. But it’s no lifetime stability.”

Venom coiled, more material now, squeezing Eddie’s shoulders close.

 ** _I told you,_** he reminded affectionately, **_that is my job._**

Eddie leaned into the sensation. The feeling of being held; the feeling of being supported. _‘til death, I guess, tomorrow or never._

“Yes, love.” He cradled his hands around the soft blackness of the form embracing him now, what parts of Venom that were material, as he lay down to share the decrepit couch with his magnificent Other. “You, and I, and Us.”


End file.
